On the former Kensington site of Timo (RIP), a new mid-range Italian of some ambition; there were some real highlights on our early-days visit, but many aspects of the operation were still very much in need of ‘tightening up’. Celebrating a birthday, we headed to this new Kensington Italian whose charms – of cuisine, if […]
On the 33rd floor of the Shard, an ambitious Chinese restaurant that was still giving a slight impression of settling in on our visit; we had an enjoyable lunch, though, and prices are not unreasonable, considering. It used to be easy. High-rise restaurants in London were few, small and expensive, and everyone knew they were […]
In the former King’s Cross wasteland, a notably welcoming (if slightly themey) warehouse-conversion, where Bruno Loubet offers an innovative and thoroughly satisfying vegetable-heavy cuisine of very high quality. He may be Bordelais by birth – and an absentee Down Under for nearly a decade – but Bruno Loubet is really a London chef through and […]
In a setting that’s practically part of the railway station, this first-floor King’s Cross dining room is a remarkable ‘oasis’ – it offers a very pleasant setting in which to enjoy British staples which, even if they have no great ambition, are realised with impressive consistency. One of the least likely restaurants we’ve encountered in […]
Oddly situated on an island site near the south end of Tower Bridge, a singular first solo venture by a young chef who worked with Tom Aikens; it offers dishes as interesting and attractive as we have found in London in recent times, and very charming service too. It’s fortunate that this island-site Borough restaurant, […]
In a side street not far from Sloane Square, a snugly-scaled but ambitious venture by a chef from New York; on our visit, the staff were charm itself, but the excitement sometimes associated with the City That Never Sleeps was notable by its absence. This discreetly-located Chelsea newcomer is your classic ‘proper’ fine dining restaurant. […]
On a prominent Covent Garden corner, a grand brasserie with plenty of Paris-meets-New York buzz; early days reviews have been decidedly mixed, but our visit a couple of months after opening was an all-round success. Only those recently returned from Mars will need much reminding about the back story of this prominently-sited brasserie – the […]
Hidden-away just off Regent Street, Jason Atherton’s second Mayfair restaurant offers a clubby vibe very different from his uncompromising Pollen Street Social, just over the road – for all-round charm, the experience at the newer restaurant is arguably superior. Jason Atherton came to prominence as the chef at Maze – initially at least, perhaps the […]
An unadorned Shoreditch purveyor of ‘meat & whiskey’ – it sounds a convivial sort of concept, but we found the reality rather up-and-down. So we find ourselves in a chilly Shoreditch, in search of a quick Sunday night dinner. We see this likely-looking place – which bills itself as a Meat & Whiskey Bar & […]
Run by the eponymous Otto, a straight-down-the-line Gallic restaurant, offering classic cooking of good quality, in an attractive and characterful Bloomsbury setting. The idea that a restaurant is an extension of the personality, even the home, of its proprietor is common in France. Witness the number of restaurants called ‘Chez’ quelqu’un. But you see it […]
